Re: [XTalk] Review of John Dominic Crossan's talk in Calgary

... I can venture an explanation. The evidence of proof-texting among early followers such as Matthew suggests they went trolling through their scriptures

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, Oct 23, 2004

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Ayse Tuzlak wrote:

>I would have liked to hear him talk more
>about the way that the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 got mixed up
>with the idea of ancient Near Eastern sacrifice and then applied to
>Jesus. (I hope he doesn't blame that on Anselm too!)

I can venture an explanation. The evidence of proof-texting among
early followers such as Matthew suggests they went trolling through
their scriptures searching for texts that would a) help them come to
terms with what happened, or b) help them understand what happened.
Often this would be served by finding texts that could be used to
"predict" what had happened. The answer to the troubling question "Why
did our Mashiach suffer and die?" would be, "Because it was predicted
that he would." In this way, the suffering servant notion was not part
of "sacrifice" imagery until the *fact* of suffering of one who was
sacrificed made it a necessary combination. It may have been Mark
himself who did this first, or someone before Mark, but I suspect
strongly that it was not someone before Jesus who did this.